Not another cliched "Help myGMAT VERBAL score needs a boost"

Question

Hi Folks,

(Warning: if you are new to this community or have not take GMAT yet, the following post might discourage you)

I am thankful for this community. It has helped me a lot.
The reason I am posting is because I am failing to crack GMAT Verbal.

Three attempts so: 550(M44-25V , AWA 3.5), 600(M45-V27 AWA 5.0), 590(M48-V25 AWA 5.0 expected).
I am very comfortable with Maths(sigh) and my AWA isnt too bad. The materials I have used so far:

OG-12
Powerscore CR (awesome stuff)
MGMAT SC
GMAT PILL (bought it for third attempt)
Kaplan GMAT (havent opened the book)

GMAT Prep 1 & 2= 650 (verbal in lower 30s)

I do see patterns in CR, SC and RC when I solve OG problems. I had setup Error logs and re-worked those problem. But I see nothing/nada/zilch patterns when I see the same problems on the test. My mind goes crazy and starts guessing. I think I lose a lot of time in RC. When I see SC problems, I see no patterns. CR ,during the test, seems out of bounds. It's as though I am suffering from a mental blockade.

I have scheduled another exam in 4 weeks. I am very determined and am willing work harder than ever before. But I am not sure what else to try.

Any tips would be genuinely appreciated.

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Any tips would be genuinely appreciated.

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear chethanjs , I happy to contribute my 2¢ on this.

First of all, here are a couple blog articles you may find useful. 1) https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/gmat-sente ... trategies/ 2) https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/save-time- ... questions/ I'd like to recommend Magoosh. We're an online GMAT prep company with over 200 lessons teaching you all the content and strategy you need for the GMAT. Here's a sample lesson. https://gmat.magoosh.com/lessons/321-gen ... strategies We have 800+ practice questions, each with its own video explanation. Here's a practice question. https://gmat.magoosh.com/questions/1186 Magoosh has a score guarantee --- if you use our product thorough, we guarantee a 50 point increase. Also, if you are taking the exam in 4 weeks, that means you'll fact the IR section (perhaps you have already seen experimental IR questions in your previous exams.) You may find the free Magoosh IR eBook helpful: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/gmat-integ ... ing-ebook/ I hope all that is helpful. Let me know if you have any questions. Mike

arun@crackverbal · Answer

"My mind goes crazy and starts guessing. I think I lose a lot of time in RC. When I see SC problems, I see no patterns. CR ,during the test, seems out of bounds. It's as though I am suffering from a mental blockade. " You already seem to have found the problem. So that is half the job done

My advice: 1) Try to see if you can think of the test as 5 individual mini-tests each of 15minute duration? For Verbal try to solve around 8 questions in each of these mini-tests. This way you will have a better control over things. Even if you goof up one 1 block you can try making up for it in the next block. 2) You seem to fall in the trap of the typical mindset which involves remembering stuff. GMAT is a test of intelligence and not just skills. So you need to ask yourself if you are applying yourself to the questions or just trying to remember "patterns". At the end of the day, SC is about applying basic rules of grammar, CR is about knowing what is the assumption/inference, and RC is about answer questions based on the passage. 3) When you say you brain freezes what do you do? Can you take a step back, have a glass of water, and focus on the task? Maybe you can also seek professional help if you think this problem is insurmountable. If you are panicking on the practice test - you can imagine what will happen on the real test. Let me know if you were able to analyze and ask more specific questions so we can help! Arun

prashantbacchewar · Answer

Hi Arun,

I recetly appeared for GMAT and scored Q49V28 overall 640. This was my second attempt on my first attempt in JAN this month I scored same with Q48V28 Overall 640. I also found myself in similar situation. Spending lot of time on RC, unable to recognize patterns in SC. For last 5 mins 3 questions were left but my brain totally froze hence randomly marked something.

My practise test scores in verbal were V31-34 in 2 GMAT Preps and one MGMAT Test. What should be my approach to improve the verbal score to 35-36 level.

My practise test scores in verbal were V31-34 in 2 GMAT Preps and one MGMAT Test. What should be my approach to improve the verbal score to 35-36 level.

Thanks

arun@crackverbal · Answer

Some observations based on your post. Please feel free to pick any or all of these: 1) You scored a V28 when your GMATPrep was a V31. This means nothing drastically different happened on the day of the test. So the brain freeze is not a psychological aspect but that you were just not able to solve/exhausted your mental stamina. This is good since you don't need to go on meds :-D

2) This also means that you pretty much are upto speed with basic concepts and are comfortable at a sub-30 raw score on GMAT. It should be the 35+ questions that should trouble you. Apart from the latter part of each section in OG (since its graded from easy to hard), the other authentic source should be GMATPrep questions. Document containing the questions is available elsewhere on this forum. 3) Your specific problem seems to be in RC where you end up spending more time than you should. Here is a simple math. Let us say you spend 5 minutes per passage and 2 minutes per question. That means for 4 passages with an average of 3-4 questions you spend 48 minutes. This means you have 27 minutes in which you have to do the rest of the 27 questions - a minute per question! The results are obvious! 4) You need to do an introspection and see which question type is posing a problem. A lot of times we tend to have self-fulfilling prophecies around your areas of weakness. In hindi "Mujhse yeh solve nahee hoga". With that attitude you will just reinforce your perception by not being able to solve it. Try to focus on the top 3 ares you are weak at. 5) Take more tests and try to finetune your test taking strategy. It is very important on the GMAT to remember 2 things (a) solve by elimination rather than selection (b) solving it isn't the big deal - solving it in 2 minutes is - so know when to make an educated guess and move on. HTH, Arun

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear prashantbacchewar Arun already gave some excellent advice, and I'm happy to add my 2¢ as well.

First of all, here's a blog about that last 3-5 minute rush, and how to choose skipping/guessing at the end of a section. https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/guessing- ... -the-gmat/ Here's a blog on SC strategies: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/gmat-sent ... trategies/ Of course, applying that and recognizing those SC patterns will involve sharpening your grammar skills. At Magoosh, we have 200+ lesson videos, including a long series on GMAT SC grammar. We can teach you the patterns for which to look on SC. Similarly, we have videos that give clear strategies for RC. Each of our 800+ practice questions has its own video explanation, so you can get immediate feedback. Here's a sample RC question. https://gmat.magoosh.com/questions/1205 When you submit your answer, the following page will have a video explanation --- one for the passage overall and one for the question itself. Quite pertinent to you, Magoosh offers has a score guarantee --- use our product, and you will see at least a 50 point score increase, or your money back --- that would be up to at least a 690 for you, and most likely breaking 700,. Many of our clients see score increases much bigger than 50 points. Finally, when you take it again, you'll need to think about Integrated Reasoning. Here's a free IR eBook I wrote: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/gmat-inte ... ing-ebook/ I hope all that is helpful. Let me know if you have any further questions. Mike

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